One thing that has carried me through learning to walk again, getting back to work, becoming a skilled wood floor contractor and a business owner? Consistency.
I don’t often let on that I was in a life-threatening ATV accident that put me in a coma for two weeks and in the hospital for two months. It isn’t obvious that I spent months learning to walk again and regaining control of the right side of my body—unless, maybe, you ask me to race. Aside from running, consistency has given me my life back, helping me become a wood floor pro and the owner of Hardwood Renovations in Terre Haute, Ind.
It was 1999 and I was 21, in my prime. I’d been an athlete in high school and was still an active guy. Along with construction jobs, I worked at the local mill making pallets before the accident that would turn my life upside down. My friend and I were riding a four-wheeler through the hills outside of town—he was driving and I was on the back. It was around 5:30 p.m. in December, so the sun had set an hour before. We were making our way back to town when we hit an iron cable stretched across the trail at full speed.
Next thing I remember, I was in the hospital. It was two weeks after the accident—I’d been in a coma the entire time. I learned that some nearby workers found us and our four-wheeler lying in the middle of the road the morning after the accident. Somehow, we’d both survived; not without consequences, though. I woke up to the whole right side of my body essentially paralyzed (luckily I’m left-handed). I spent the next two months in rehabilitation, learning how to walk and do simple tasks again. Eventually, with a lot of grit and consistency, I regained enough control over my body to go home.
According to the doctors, I’d be able to live on my own, but I’d never be able to work again. I was used to hard work and long hours, so this threw me for a loop. Being told I couldn’t work and that I would have to rely on the state to meet my basic needs put me in a dark place mentally. Besides the odd job here and there, I survived on government assistance for the next 10 years. In other words, I was in that dark place for a decade. The way this experience institutionalized me, I felt like it wasn’t worth it to find a job or get myself out of the hole I was in. I might as well just scrape by with these government checks, I thought.
Then, Valerie and I got married and started a family. This was the push I needed to prove those doctors wrong—to get out of the mindset I was trapped in. It was going to be one of the hardest things I would ever overcome, but I knew I had to make a change. At the time, my wife worked with the wife of John Crispin, who owned a flooring company called Hardwood Renovations. Learning that I had a background in construction, John agreed to sell us one of his properties—one that needed to be fixed up—on contract. Lemme tell you: that house needed more than “a little love,” like John claimed. So I got to work.
While I was working on John’s place, I was still searching for a consistent job that would allow me to provide for my family. Finally, after I wore him down, John agreed to hire me for my very first flooring job: a staircase renovation. Now, I’d worked in construction my whole life but had never redone a wood floor, let alone a staircase. But I was determined to prove myself. The voice in my head kept saying, “Stay consistent. Keep going. You don’t want to go back to where you were before.” It was this voice and my consistency mindset that pushed me to overcome the mistakes I made on that first job (and trust me, there were a couple). It would also push me to overcome the mistakes I made during the next 12 years as I worked for John.
Those mistakes would become fewer and farther between as John taught me everything he knew about wood flooring and business. Then, in 2019, it all paid off big time: John sold Hardwood Renovations to me. By that time, Valerie had gone to school for business administration, so she was able to take care of the office tasks while I focused on the floors and the customers. We were now business owners, and it was my turn to give other people a chance, just like John had done for me.
Through the years, Valerie and I have brought on more technicians to meet demand—some being folks who’ve never even touched a sander, but needed a chance at turning their life around. That’s my favorite part of the job: seeing the new life that can come out of what most people would consider a lost cause, whether that lost cause is a floor or a person. Many customers can’t believe how bright their old or destroyed floor can shine when given the right opportunity. It’s all about seeing the potential of what can be, and being dedicated to the consistency it will take to get there. I’m walking (and, maybe someday, running) proof of it.
The doctors didn't think I'd ever be able to work, much less own a wood flooring company.
